Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
She blinked. “You say that as if I follow him home.”
“You have nothing to do with him, I know. But in purchasing certain properties, he’s on the edge of your life. That’s too close for my liking. I have nothing against their kind, but I don’t want them near you.”
Ella rolled her eyes. “You think all guys are too close to me for your liking. You can’t tell me who I can and can’t talk to.”
“I just did.”
“And you think I’ll heed and obey?”
He exhaled heavily, put-out. “No. You don’t fear me like other people do.”
Because she had nothing to fear from him. He’d never hurt her.
“Just give Viper a wide berth, Ella. That’s all I ask. Now, tell me all I’ve missed since I last saw you.”
“Well … ”
CHAPTER FIVE
Driving through the chain-link fence of his compound Sunday evening, Viper noticed a number of his brothers gathered in a circle. He parked his bike among the others outside the clubhouse and then switched off the engine. Tugging off his safety helmet, he frowned. Voices were yelling—voices that came from within the circle of people.
Having set both his gloves and helmet on the bike, he dismounted it. He didn’t actually need protective gear. None of them did. It would take more than a traffic accident to severely injure them. But blending with humans often meant following their rules so as not to attract the attention of their law enforcement.
As he strode toward the gathering of people, he noticed that Jester stood off to the side. “What’s going on?” Viper asked him.
“So—and don’t ask me how, because I don’t get it—Hustle managed to convince Rivet to stake his bike during a game of poker,” Jester explained. “A game he then lost. Rivet, naturally, doesn’t wanna part with his pride and joy. Hustle doesn’t see how that’s his problem.”
Viper sighed. Honestly, his brothers had been easier to manage when part of the holy host. Since they’d fallen, they’d become more mercurial—a result of not only their inner entities twisting but the lessening of action, combat, and adrenaline since retiring from their old positions. Half the time, he’d swear they started shit with each other out of boredom.
Viper waded in, shrugging his way through the crowd. “All right, enough.”
The yelling stopped, and the two glowering angels took a step back from each other.
His club was made up of two breeds of angel. Both kinds were powerful, though one was slightly more dangerous than the other. Unlike angels who sported wings or halos, the two breeds here didn’t boast typical physical traits that made them identifiable. A fortunate thing, since not one of their kind would be welcome by the demon population.
Rivet pointed at Hustle. “He needs an ass-kicking.”
“Because he won at poker?” asked Viper.
“No, because he cheated.”
“I resent that,” Hustle piped up.
He shouldn’t, since he probably had cheated.
“Resent it all the fuck you like,” Rivet sniped. “I’m not handing over my bike to you or anyone else. I would have won if you’d played fair.”
In the crowd, Prophet sighed. “When does he ever play fair?”
“He said he would this time,” Rivet claimed.
Jester frowned. “You didn’t suspect he was lying, considering he’s a person you can always rely on to bullshit and swindle people? Seriously?”
Rivet ground his teeth. “I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt.”
“Then you’re stupid,” Jester bluntly told him.
A psyche right then bumped Viper’s, a sense of urgency coming from it. Then Dice’s voice flitted through his mind … I found some strix.
Viper stilled. Where? He wasn’t surprised that Dice had located them within a day—he was an expert tracker.
A bunch of them are hovering and sniffing around a camping spot. Seems like they’re trying to track the humans who recently used it. He paused. One human left behind a sock. A real small one, V.
Viper silently swore. Strix always preferred the blood of children. I need your coordinates.
Dice rattled them off. Be fast.
Viper refocused on his brothers. “All right, listen up. Dice has tracked the strix. We need to act quickly, because they seem to be hunting a party of campers that includes at least one kid.” He gave out Dice’s coordinates and then teleported straight there, finding himself stood within a tight cluster of trees. His brothers appeared behind him in a mere millisecond.
They could all teleport—or shimmer, as they sometimes called it—with complete ease. All celestials could, fallen or not.
Dice nodded their way. “They’re still sniffing around the camp.”
Celestial-vision not hampered by low lighting, Viper locked his gaze on the pale, long-limbed figures that were prowling around a patch of uneven ground that was ringed by trees and shrubs. One of them held the sock that Dice had mentioned. Yeah, it definitely belonged to a child.
They appeared to be debating something, two pointing long-nailed fingers in separate directions; possibly arguing over which way they believed the campers had headed.